“Purple Wisteria Hundred-Leaf Flower? Are you sure?”
Hearing Fang Ping’s guess and learning the value of this spirit flower from him, Zhou Yang and the others—even Senior Brother Yan—were all thrilled.
The bounty posted by Elder Wang’s granddaughter was only a hundred Spirit Stones and five bottles of Origin Condensation Pills!
“I cannot guarantee it, but I feel there is a good chance.”
Fang Ping didn’t dare speak with absolute certainty, afraid that if he raised their hopes only for them to fall through, it would just leave everyone disappointed.
But even so, it was impossible for the others to remain indifferent.
They immediately scattered, searching the surrounding area.
A moment later, the mountain wind blowing from the bottom of the cliff once again carried that medicinal fragrance.
And finally, following the wind, Fang Ping found the source of the aroma!
Not far away, diagonally below them on the left side of a stone platform about ten zhang from their mountain path, a patch of purple vines grew in an inconspicuous crevice.
Atop the spirit plants, four white spirit flowers bloomed steadily!
The white flowers were not particularly eye-catching. One might even call them plain, but in the eyes of Fang Ping and the others who had rushed over upon hearing the news, they were more beautiful than the most radiant sunset clouds.
“Purple vines, star-shaped fragmented leaves, six-petaled flowers, a fragrance like mountain vine flowers but slightly sweet… There is no mistake. This should be the Purple Wisteria Hundred-Leaf Flower!”
Fang Ping announced his judgment.
“Excellent!”
Zhou Yang and Zhang Feihu clapped their hands together in sheer excitement.
Su Lingyun also revealed a joyful expression, looking even more beautiful and alluring.
Senior Brother Yan appeared rather moved. “I never thought that I, Yan, would also stumble upon a Fated Chance. Junior Brother Fang, you truly are a lucky star!”
Four spirit flowers, worth approximately one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones!
However, the flowers’ location was precarious. If they risked picking them, a single misstep or a gust of unpredictable mountain wind could blow them right off the edge.
This thorny problem lay before the five of them.
Fang Ping looked at Yan Xu and asked, “Senior Brother Yan, a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivator should be able to fly using a Magical Artifact, right?”
Yan Xu’s face immediately revealed a hint of embarrassment.
His lips moved hesitantly before he said, “Decent-quality flying Magical Artifacts are not cheap, and I have no interest in the inferior ones… I am still saving up Spirit Stones for now!”
In other words, there was no way to fly over!
The shortcut was gone, but in the face of over a hundred Spirit Stones, no difficulty could not be overcome.
Soon, pooling their ideas, the five came up with a reliable method.
They would use sturdy, thick vines as safety ropes and drive solid wooden wedges into the cliff face using their Spiritual Power, forcibly carving out a suspended walkway that a person could climb along.
As for whether this would delay their search for the White-Feathered Spirit Crane?
Apologies!
The group had long since thrown the existence of the spirit crane to the back of their minds. The spirit flowers were the tangible benefit right before their eyes.
After about half a day of arduous work.
Senior Brother Yan, Zhou Yang, and the others took turns. During this time, they lost their footing or were blown off by the mountain wind several times, but relying on the safety ropes, the others hauled them back up without a disaster.
Through such primitive means, they stubbornly carved out a path leading down to the stone platform.
Finally, as Zhang Feihu volunteered to tie the vines around his waist and climb over inch by inch, Fang Ping held his breath in anxiety for the man while also feeling a pang of emotion over his own lack of strength.
If he were at mid-stage Qi Condensation and possessed a flying Magical Artifact, this matter would have been easily resolved.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
Zhang Feihu successfully reached the stone platform, carefully plucked the spirit flowers, and stored them in his Storage Bag before climbing back with a look of pure joy.
One hundred and fifty Spirit Stones in hand!
With such a harvest, they all knew exactly who they had to thank.
Having learned that Fang Ping possessed some understanding of the Dao of Alchemy, Yan Xu—who already felt Fang Ping was worth befriending—immediately spoke up. “Being able to discover these spirit flowers was entirely thanks to Junior Brother Fang; it had nothing to do with combat strength or cultivation realm. For this discovery, Junior Brother Fang rightfully deserves to take half alone, and the rest of us shall split the remainder equally!”
Seeing that Yan Xu had made his stance clear, Zhou Yang and the others could not object, and the distribution ratio was settled on the spot.
Just as the group was overjoyed, calculating exactly how many Spirit Stones each of them would receive, a crisp crane cry suddenly echoed from the sky near the top of the cliff.
“Haha, you beast, you finally couldn’t hold back!”
An outer sect Deacon patrolling the air laughed heartily and gave chase on his Magical Artifact.
Pursued by thousands of Luoyang Sect outer sect disciples searching the mountain for five consecutive days, the hiding White-Feathered Spirit Crane finally couldn’t bear the pressure and revealed itself, trying to carve out a path to freedom.
Unfortunately, it was destined to have no escape.
Several outer sect Deacons rushed forward as one, surrounding and intercepting it. Only after great effort did they manage to trap the spirit crane in a net.
It wasn’t that this spirit crane’s strength was truly so astonishing that it could fight several Deacons at once. It was primarily because the Deacons were full of misgivings when they struck, absolutely terrified of using their full strength lest they harm a single feather on the bird.
After this ‘fierce battle,’ the White-Feathered Spirit Crane found it impossible to escape even with wings, and was subdued by the Deacons.
Watching the scene unfold in the distant sky, almost all the outer sect disciples let out a long sigh of relief.
Finally, it was over!
The only pity was that the spirit crane had flown out on its own, meaning no one could claim the bounty of a hundred Spirit Stones and five bottles of Origin Condensation Pills.
⁂
Before nightfall that day.
The crowd of outer sect disciples successively withdrew to their original landing sites, climbed back onto the backs of the Cloud-Bearing Beasts, and embarked on the journey back to the Sect overnight.
When they arrived, the Cloud-Bearing Beasts were packed with disciples.
On the return trip, the backs of the Cloud-Bearing Beasts were still packed to the brim, looking as though there was no difference whatsoever.
But if one were to actually count them one by one, they would discover that there were five fewer disciples on this trip back, and the number of injured disciples was even higher.
Five lives lost in five days—an average of just one accidental casualty per day.
It didn’t sound like much.
But one couldn’t forget that this was the casualty rate of only a single Cloud-Bearing Beast.
If all the disciples were tallied together, the total losses would certainly not be a small number.
Perhaps realizing this, while there were indeed cheerful discussions among the many outer sect disciples on the return journey, an even greater number fell into total silence.
But what else could be said?
The cultivation world of today was no longer the ancient era from tens of thousands of years ago.
Cultivation resources were finite, and disciples with average spiritual root aptitude were not in short supply.
The five-year Novice rule was already meant to clear out a large number of people.
Compared to the sheer number of disciples expelled from the Sect, these sacrifices counted for little. In fact, they simply served to let the great waves wash away the sand.
Perhaps it was for this exact reason that not a single member of the Sect’s upper echelons had stepped forward to stop Elder Wang from abusing his public authority for private matters, forcing numerous outer sect disciples to run themselves ragged and risk their lives for a single spirit crane.
⁂
One day later.
Having returned to the Sect, Fang Ping and the others immediately headed to Luoyun Market together to sell off the various spiritual herbs and Demon Beast materials they had acquired on this expedition—with a heavy emphasis on those four Purple Wisteria Hundred-Leaf Flowers.
As for why a task that could have been handled by sending a single person required all five of them to go together, the underlying reasons were somewhat subtle.
Ultimately, after everything was liquidated, the five of them had acquired a total of roughly two hundred Spirit Stones.
Because he took fifty percent of the spirit flower profits alone, Fang Ping earned the most, receiving nearly a hundred Spirit Stones by himself.
Senior Brother Yan, possessing the highest combat strength and cultivation realm, had earnings second only to Fang Ping.
The other three—Zhou Yang, Zhang Feihu, and Su Lingyun—each walked away with an average of nearly twenty Spirit Stones. It was a joyous outcome for everyone involved.